As SFE’s report reveals, people rarely think about possible future mental incapacity even though we are worried about it.

As a nation, we are failing to talk about what our wishes would be for our later life, should we lose the ability to make our own decisions. (See our short video for more details)

SFE’s report suggests the UK is now facing an incapacity crisis.

This is caused by the rising number of us facing incapacity (due to living longer and the prevalence of conditions like dementia) and the fact that too few of us are planning ahead should we no longer be able to make decisions for ourselves.

This paints a worrying picture of us as a nation leaving our fate in the hands of strangers. Whilst more of us are making provisions for our personal assets and finances, we are still leaving our wishes around our health and care to chance and the choices of others. Our research found that over three quarters of us have not spoken about our personal medical and care wishes in the event that we lose mental capacity.

So, they encourage everybody to act now by thinking about your wishes, having the conversation with your loved ones and getting a health and welfare lasting power of attorney in place before it’s too late.